Costochondritis

Acute costochondritis often recovers within 4 to 8 weeks with appropriate rest and anti-inflammatory treatment. However, if it persists for more than three months, you must consider the possibility that ① repetitive overloading movements have continued, ② adhesions or fibrosis have progressed in the soft tissues surrounding the cartilage, or ③ there is an underlying immune abnormality (such as psoriatic arthritis or ankylosing chondritis). At this stage, it is important to check the tissue condition using imaging tests (ultrasound and MRI) and to combine active procedural treatment.

Perspective of a Korean Medicine Clinic

In Korean medicine, pain that has persisted for more than three months is considered to be a state where chronic illnesses have become severe and hardened, reaching even the meridians. If Qi stagnation persists for a long time, the stagnation hardens even in the small meridians, making it impossible to resolve simply by clearing the flow of Qi. At this stage, a step-by-step approach is required: physically separating hardened adhesions with needles, promoting tissue regeneration with fire acupuncture or thread embedding, and finally resolving the stagnation from the depths using herbal medicine tailored to the patient's constitution.